Bruce Barry | Through the Shattered Lens

The 1977 film, Abba: The Movie, is really two movies in one.

One of the movies, and the one that will probably most appeal to fans of the group, is a cinema verité-style look at ABBA touring Australia. This part of the movie not only features the band playing their best-known songs in concert but it also features some behind-the-scenes footage of the members of ABBA trying to enjoy their time Australia. They struggle to adjust to Australian culture and the English language. Agnetha Fältskog complains about the way the tabloids focus on her body as opposed to her singing. The emphasis is on the members of ABBA being down-to-Earth and friendly professionals who love making music but who, even more importantly, love hanging out together and making their fans happy.

The second movie is about an Australian DJ named Ashley Wallace (Robert Hughes) who is ordered to get an interview with ABBA before they leave the continent. It won’t prove easy. For one thing, Ashley really isn’t sure who ABBA is, beyond knowing that they’re a famous pop band. (Ashley’s musical tastes seem to learn towards country and western.) Secondly, ABBA is always surrounded by a mob of fans and bodyguards and it’s very difficult to get close enough to even ask them for an interview. Third, ABBA distrusts reporters, especially after the tabloids print a bunch of salacious articles about Agnetha. Fourth, Ashley is an idiot.

Seriously, Ashley is his own worst enemy. If ABBA heads to the west, you can be sure that Ashley will catch the next train heading east. Even when Ashley does finally manage to talk to ABBA’s manager and schedule an interview, he ends up oversleeping and missing his appointment! Seriously, just think about this. Ashley has been told that his entire future depends on getting an interview with ABBA, a task that soon proves to be nearly impossible. Then, when Ashley finally manages to get a chance to conduct this all-important interview, it doesn’t occur to him to set his alarm to wake him up early. There’s a word for that type of behavior and that word is “stupidity.”

As he struggles to get some time with ABBA, Ashley also takes time to interview people on the street about the opinion of ABBA. Surprise! Almost everyone loves ABBA! I guess that’s to be expected, considering that the movie is named after them. It would probably be counter-productive to have Ashley interview a bunch of people who can’t stand ABBA and would rather be listening to Led Zeppelin. (There are a few people who tell Ashley that they don’t like ABBA but they’re all losers.) Ashley spends so much time talking to people who love ABBA that he soon comes to love ABBA and appreciate their music as well. He even has a series of fantasy and daydreams. He imagines that the two men in ABBA are his best friends. He dreams of being loved by the two women in ABBA. Through Ashley, the audience is provided a view of how one goes from being indifferent to being a fan.

But most viewers won’t care about Ashley. They’ll be watching for ABBA. The performances are strong. The members of the band seem to truly enjoy being on stage and interacting with their fans. Interestingly, the members of ABBA are likable but a bit bland off-stage. They’re people who truly come alive when they’re performing but who are much more subdued and down-to-Earth offstage. Indeed, it almost seems as if Ashley is wasting his time trying to get an interview. In this film, to watch ABBA perform on stage is to know all that you need to know.

Patrick, a 1978 horror film from Australia, opens with the title character (played by Robert Thompson) watching as his mother makes love to her boyfriend. The first thing that we notice about Patrick is his stare. It’s intense and more than a little unsettling. (Actually, to be honest, the first thing we notice about Patrick is his head of blonde hair. But that stare is a close second.) The next thing that we notice about Patrick is that he doesn’t speak. Instead, he just stares. Eventually, when his mother and her boyfriend are taking a bath, Patrick drops a heater into the water and electrocutes both of them.

Yes, Patrick has some issues.

When we next meet Patrick, three years have passed. He’s in a coma now and spends all of his time laying in a bed in a private hospital. Everyone says that he’s brain dead, despite the fact that he still reflexively spits. The head nurse, the bitter Matron Cassidy (Julia Blake), hates the fact that Patrick is being kept alive. As she tells a new nurse, she feels that he is a waste of space and she wishes that she could just turn off the machines that are keeping Patrick alive.

Strangely, Patrick shows no physical signs of having been in a coma for three years. (One doctor points out that Patrick hasn’t even lost any weight during his time in the hospital.) And then, there’s the fact that Patrick’s eyes are always open. Even in a coma, he has the same intense stare.

An idealistic new nurse named Kathie (Susan Penhaligon) takes an interest in Patrick. Over the objections of Matron Cassidy, Katie tries to talk to Patrick. Kathie becomes convinced that Patrick’s spitting is not merely a reflex action but it’s actually his attempt to communicate. Kathie becomes obsessed with proving the Patrick can still respond to the outside world.

And, in any other film, this is the type of storyline that would ultimately lead to a very inspiring conclusion, in which the idealistic nurse’s faith is validated and the stricken patient is finally allowed to find a measure of happiness and dignity.

However, Patrick is a horror film.

Kathie does eventually discover that Patrick can see and hear. Patrick does know what’s going on in the outside world. But what Kathie doesn’t expect is that Patrick turns out to be a bit of an obsessively jealous pervert. Also, it turns out that Patrick has the power of telekinesis. Soon, he’s using a typewriter to send Kathie messages like, “It’s time for Patrick’s handjob.”

Patrick also uses his powers to punish any man who he feels is getting too close to Kathie. This includes Kathie’s husband, Ed (Rod Mullinar). First, Patrick causes Ed to seriously burn his hands on a hot casserole dish. Then he traps Ed in an elevator, forcing Kathie to beg for her husband’s life.

Patrick is a surprisingly well-acted and effective little horror film, one that spends as much time on maintaining the proper melancholy atmosphere as it does on trying to shock the audience. The end result is an intelligent little gem that will make you think even as it attempts to scare you. That said, my main memory of Patrick will always be that stare. Seriously, it was so creepy!

A remake was released in 2013 but I have yet to see it. However, I have seen the film’s unofficial Italian sequel and that’s what I’ll be reviewing next!